Picture Picnic 🅿🅿: Seabird

Showing posts with label Seabird. Show all posts

Red-throated Diver (Iceland, Summer plumage)

Following on from my previous post are the Summer plumaged Red-throated Divers from Iceland. A complete contrast to their Winter appearance, but just as stunning, in my opinion. With a good numbers of them in Iceland it was nice to get a varied range of backgrounds, with both calm and rough water. I have added a total of 95 new images of them to my website - Steven Round Bird Photography.com

Red-throated Diver (Winter plumage)

Back in March I photographed a Red-throated Diver at Fairhaven Lake, in Lancashire. This bird was in Winter plumage and would contrast well with the breeding plumaged birds, that I would photograph a couple of months later in Iceland. I was originally going to include both plumages in one post, but decided that with so many shots of such stunning birds, I would split them into two posts. The next will follow shortly.

Skomer Puffins

I made a trip to the island of Skomer, off the Pembrokeshire coast in south Wales last week. It was getting a little late in the season but I knew there were still plenty of Puffins there. They are a couple of weeks later than usual with breeding and are still feeding young in the burrows.

Arriving on the island before lunchtime, it wasn't going to be the best time for photography in the scorching overhead sun. I tried a few flight shots but the heat distortion didn't help in trying to get sharp images, so close-ups would be the order of the day.

Skuas in the Wind

I had mentioned in a previous post about the strong 40mph winds, whilst I was on the Outer Hebrides. These winds did have their benefits in the form of migrating Skuas being blown very close to shore. Literally thousands of them came past, sometimes in large flocks of hundreds. They would terrorise the flocks of waders as they passed through, they worked together like an organized gang, trying to isolate a Dunlin from the tightly packed flock. You knew when they were approaching as all the waders would take to the air in fear.

It was difficult to get shots of them, as they moved very quickly. They disappeared as quickly as they arrived. I managed to get a few reasonable photographs of the three species - Arctic, Pomarine and the scarcer Long-tailed.

Arctic Skua

Long-tailed Skua

Pomarine Skua

Sandwich Terns

A few Sandwich Tern images from Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey.

Gannets

My final post from the recent trip to Bempton Cliffs. The target species and stars of the day were the Gannets. Always entertaining and great fun to photograph, especially as a strong wind made them show off their aerobatic skills, giving us some good opportunities for a variety of flight shots.